Aparna Ram
Aparna Ram, is a senior IT professional with over 20 years of IT experience in roles ranging from application developer to program manager, holds a bachelor’s in information technology from the University of Madras and an MBA from Warwick Business School. Beyond her professional pursuits, she enjoys exploring architectural history, traveling, and playing the violin.
Aparna Ram started her career as a legacy developer climbed up the path to lead cross functional teams across geographies to ideate, evaluate, and execute several projects for business growth and development. She relies on the key P’s – Priorities, People, Persuasion, Persistence, Positivism and Perception to steer strategic initiatives with stakeholder acceptance. She is a keen advocate of platform-based approach to drive governance and rationalize performance for accelerated decision making. This has largely contributed to strengthen collaboration in cross-functional teams, increased mindshare, and market share for building an organic framework for partnership with her team as well as clients. She has leveraged the insights from her journey to give back to society through corporate CSR initiatives such as helping to promote innovation and entrepreneurship amongst schoolchildren through the Atal Innovation program.
Hailing from a modest conservative family, her parents inculcated 2 important facts of life right form early childhood.
- Being educated and knowledgeable is the key to maintaining economic independence.
- Keep faith in you & lord to take realistic decisions and set higher goals.
The initial years of her career was tempestuous – shrouded by phases of low self-esteem and imposter syndrome, often hit with existential crisis. That was a phase in her life where she faced many curve balls on both personal and professional front. Societal pressure to achieve certain milestones and to follow a predefined path left her feeling empty and alienated – numerous questions haunted her:
- Who am I – A needy kid unable to control emotions or a maverick making radical decisions or a woman who is tired and has given up?
- What matters to me – Is it hurting truth or sugar-coated lies?
- How do I look – healed or concealed?
- What’s this phase in my life – Buried underground or planted as seed?
- How would I define my individuality – a mere label or legacy?
- Why me?
During times of anxiety, lack of confidence/ faith, she draws inspiration from art; looks up to achievers who rose to great heights from humble beginnings and leans on theology. This encouraged a deep re-evaluation on her personal identity and quest for profound sense of belonging. Through the journey of self-discovery with reflection she embraced the beauty of her perfectly imperfect life
She realized that repeated failures are just sign posts leading to success. She has learned that life is a rich tapestry, and its beauty lies in not just celebrating mundane milestones but rather appreciating the journey itself. The art of being successful lies in balancing each day with excellence, making it special and appreciating every moment with time to contemplate; she is very lucky to be surrounded by a supportive family who have always held her back in whatever decisions she makes.
Despite all the vagaries of life, Aparna Ram has been grounded on integrity, authenticity, and humility. She never gave up on the grit to push through, sticking to future not for days, weeks or month but for years now working hard on the goals, focused on pursuit of knowledge – making decisions, and standing by it – doing what must be done. Her definition of success is not just about being worldly but a direct result of self-satisfaction in finally knowing she did her best measured by her own heart and soul regardless of what the societal standards are.
